Devices protecting the human body against injury during strenuous physical activity, such as participation in sporting events, are well known in the art. A common protection device is an athletic “cup” designed to protect the genital/groin region from impact. For example, baseball players wear athletic cups to protect against injury, such as may occur if they were to be struck in the groin by a baseball while at bat.
Traditionally, athletic cups have been made of two or more pieces of different materials joined together in some manner. One of the purposes of the dual-component construction is to provide a soft or resilient structure adjacent the body of the wearer for comfort and/or impact absorption or dissipation, while retaining a hard shell to protect the genitals or groin. Most typically, the hard portion is a rounded cup-like structure having a central cavity. To this hard shell is typically affixed an outer ring of more flexible material for cushioning and comfort where the device seats against the body. These two components are typically of different composition, such as PVC, TPU, or other rigid plastic for the shell, with the flexible material being a foam, EVA, or a relatively soft rubber. These components may be joined by gluing, heat bonding, radio frequency welding, co-molding, or other techniques. In order to achieve both the protective effect of the hard shell and the comfort effect of the softer more resilient material, it is believed that typical prior athletic cups use two structures bonded during the manufacturing process for thereafter).